Tivo_Kenevil wrote:Did these losers even attempt to try to lure Amazon?

If Amazon does choose to purchase the land from Spire and work with their own developer to develop it then I will applaud Spire for assembling the land, sitting on it, and being incapable of developing it haha! They would be winners in my book!

Part of it is that Spire just hasn't been able to achieve some legitimacy in the developer community. They want to be Trammel Crow but have mostly just owned and remodeled existing office spaces. They can not seem to convince anyone to let them develop space from the ground up.

Here is how extra stupid this gets....they could just simply sell the damn land and still make a profit. They arent going to be attracting anyone to develop as clearly no one trusts them and they cant manage it in the first place.

Hell they could hold on to part of the land if they really want to get in the game and eventually prove themselves, but they cant manage developing this entire plot but they still could come out ahead and make money. This is beyond idiotic.

Cant City Hall get off of their collective asses and do something for just freaking once?

ContriveDallasite wrote:Every time I see this thread reactive I get a little excited. It's ridiculous the amount of projects that have started-/finished in the time that Spire was first announced.

To be fair, while I agree there is reason for skepticism about whether Spire can pull off such a development, we have to admit that a big part of the problem is still downtown Dallas. What projects in downtown Dallas have started and finished since Spire was first announced (2011, IIRC)? (I think the list may start with KPMG Plaza and end with 1900 Pearl.)

City hall shouldn't and can't take the land. It's not needed for some grand civic project and while I hope Spire sells I do believe they have the right to sit on the property if they think its a smart decision for their own business. I am a big supporter of things for the greater good like mass transit but I do think property rights should be respected in some form.

ContriveDallasite wrote:Every time I see this thread reactive I get a little excited. It's ridiculous the amount of projects that have started-/finished in the time that Spire was first announced.

To be fair, while I agree there is reason for skepticism about whether Spire can pull off such a development, we have to admit that a big part of the problem is still downtown Dallas. What projects in downtown Dallas have started and finished since Spire was first announced (2011, IIRC)? (I think the list may start with KPMG Plaza and end with 1900 Pearl.)

They're holding until the iron is hottest, up to a decade. The HQ2 cavalcade has focused and highlighted three parts of downtown - Reunion-Convention Center, Victory Park-West End, Smart Dallas (City Hall-Convention Center) - and these three will rule the massive scale development. Spire could sell or partner with Hall or Billingsley to thoroughly torque this downtown acreage into a Rockefeller Plaza sort of dealio.

I would absolutely love to see The Crow Asian Collection (or the Crow rare books, statuary and art collection) expand in dramatic form that aims the Arts District toward the Latino Cultural Center and that would include a Spire-Billingsley deal. But also, Hall is famous for Texas art collecting and the same effect could happen. Dallas could really use a prominent Modern Art Museum, though, and neither Crow/Billingsley nor Hall seem to have as much a taste for modern art.

Kicking off a new philanthropic collaboration founded by the Crow Family & Craig Hall would certainly demand the attention of Spire, could even command cooperation for a new venue in an Arts District annex.

Nothing much should be expected with the Spire property until the next lifetime of I-345 has been determined.

ContriveDallasite wrote:Every time I see this thread reactive I get a little excited. It's ridiculous the amount of projects that have started-/finished in the time that Spire was first announced.

To be fair, while I agree there is reason for skepticism about whether Spire can pull off such a development, we have to admit that a big part of the problem is still downtown Dallas. What projects in downtown Dallas have started and finished since Spire was first announced (2011, IIRC)? (I think the list may start with KPMG Plaza and end with 1900 Pearl.)

I am assuming you mean major office projects.

I mean major projects. Are there other projects downtown that were started and completed since 2011?

Tucy wrote:To be fair, while I agree there is reason for skepticism about whether Spire can pull off such a development, we have to admit that a big part of the problem is still downtown Dallas. What projects in downtown Dallas have started and finished since Spire was first announced (2011, IIRC)? (I think the list may start with KPMG Plaza and end with 1900 Pearl.)

I am assuming you mean major office projects.

I mean major projects. Are there other projects downtown that were started and completed since 2011?

If you're going to try to be pedantic you should at least specify your criteria for what constitutes a "major project."

eburress wrote:^^ I'm kind of glad Two Arts never happened. For such a prominent location I feel the buildings' design should have been so much stronger.

Yeah I was never crazy about the design, especially the corner facing Central, felt like that deserved something that sort of anchored the corner of downtown and was sort of like, well.....more eye candy than was was offered.